Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom

by Conrad Black

Book Overview

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the only US president elected for four terms. Conrad Black, the Canadian born proprietor of the Daily Telegraph in Britain (and the Hollinger Group in Canada and the US)... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1586481843
• ISBN13: 9781586481841
• Release Date: November 2003
• Publisher: PublicAffairs
• Length: 1296 Pages
• Weight: 4.43 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.5" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

FDR in War and Peace

Conrad Black, a Canadian press baron who is actually a real British baron has written the single best one volume biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt. This book excels for three distinct reasons. First, the Baron Black of Crossharbour in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets---to use his legal name and title---is an exceptionally good writer. The text is a smooth and easy read. Second, and this is where Lord Black is at his best, he fully develops Roosevelt's character and personality in this book. Although this skill might seem like a fairly obvious one for a biographer, it is one that skips to many who take on this type of writing. What made Roosevelt great--and that he was--was his character and vision. He could be sneak and manipulative, like any other good politician, but he knew what type of leadership the nation needed, what made the nation great and provided those things in abundance. He had that "vision thing." He had studied the life and career of his famous "Uncle Ted" and offered the public the same type of leadership that the first Roosevelt had. While Theodore Roosevelt was a man of character in public and private, his distant cousin's was more public. FDR was unfaithful to a trying and difficult wife, an emotionally distant father to his children, and although exceptionally charming, emotionally distant from most people. Finally, the book is an up-to-date assessment of historical work on Roosevelt's twelve years in the White House. The bulk of the book focuses on the presidency with Black getting to 1932 in a little over 200 pages. He sees FDR working to maintain the capitalist system during the Great Depression. He always liked to keep his political options and encouraged a good deal of conflict within the bureaucracy. The New Deal does not see as extensive coverage as World War II. Black gives FDR high marks for his work as Commander-in-Chief. He set the policy, maintained the vision and generally avoided details. This type of leadership drove his generals and admirals crazy, but he knew what was possible and took the attitude that good was good enough. This might not have been the most efficient way to win the war, but it worked. He certainly avoided micromanaging the military the way some of his predecessors have in the years since. Although Canada and the United States are similar in many ways, the fact that a foreigner can offer an exceptionally nuanced assessment of FDR's administration is yet more testimony to Black's skill as a biographer. If you are prepared to tackle a 1200 page monster, this is an exceptionally good book.

Essential Bio of an American Colossus

After reading Conrad Black's Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom, it is hard for me to imagine a better, more comprehensive or more balanced biography of FDR. Roosevelt's life generally inspires biographies that are either hagiographic or hatchet jobs. Black disdains these simplistic interpretations. What he gives us instead is an incredibly detailed, strongly opinionated, but remarkably fair analysis of the man who was perhaps the greatest of twentieth century America's giants. This is a massive book, running to 1134 pages. Rather than concentrating on a particular aspect of Roosevelt's life or career, Black has tackled the whole of it, both public and private. Roosevelt's pedigree and privileged childhood, his schooling, complex marriage, family relationships, rise in politics, life-changing illness, and presidency are all covered here in great detail. The significant appointments, political moves policies and legislation, political allies and enemies, and the crisis of each of his four presidential terms are covered in depth. Black writes engagingly, and does a masterful job of turning what could have been dull, dry details into a fascinating tale of political gamesmanship. Black's FDR is compelling and complex. Born to privilege, the last great American figure to follow the old code of noblesse oblige, Roosevelt seems to have been genuinely concerned with the welfare of the masses, while at the same time being curiously indifferent to the feelings of those he knew personally. While not an intellectual, he possessed the most remarkable political instincts of any man of his time. Both gregarious and aloof, visionary and Machiavellian, he was, as he himself noted, sphinx-like and unfathomable. Black has written what is sure to become the definitive biography of Franklin Roosevelt - immediate required reading for all that would study his life. Though written to appeal to both the scholar and those with a general interest, it is not the biography to read if you have only a casual interest in FDR and wish a quick introduction to his life. Black's tour de force biography comes very close to saying everything that needs to be or can be said about Roosevelt's amazing life. It is powerful, provocative, and highly recommended. Theo Logos

comprehensive and incisive

Comprehensive and incisive Conrad Black?s FDR: Champion of Freedom is a comprehensive and incisive one-volume political biography. FDR had so many achievements that his biographers tend either towards hagiography or towards elucidating facets of his leadership, such as the New Deal or WWII. The author strikes an admirable balance in unfolding FDR?s remarkable life and accomplishments. From rescuing America from the Depression, to shepherding America out of its prewar isolationism, to winning WWII, to setting up the modern world, one begins to appreciate the hard choices and hard work needed to turn each of these into reality. In retrospect, it all seems so straightforward and unambiguous. The author has the gift of transporting the reader back to times BEFORE things were so clear, when intelligent, informed men of integrity argued strongly against each of these accomplishments. Again and again, one is impressed with FDR?s clarity of vision, determination, and agility in turning his vision into reality. No one of these is a small accomplishment; together they almost defy imagination. FDR was a master of accepting tactical defeats in order to gain strategic success. He was maddeningly careful not to anger groups he would or might need to support aims broader than the controversies in which he was currently embroiled. This, naturally, led to (justified) accusations of not doing enough to support the right people in the right struggles. FDR was the ultimate utilitarian and opportunist, but he was keeping his options open in order to seize what he perceived (correctly) to be historic opportunities to advance his nation and the civilized world. It is in the juxtaposition of varied and at times scurrilous tactics with lofty and audacious goals where much of FDR?s fascination lies. In this political biography, the focus is always on the political aspects of this most political leader?s efforts. There is no shrinking from the seamier aspects of FDR?s manipulations. They are identified, explored, and fit into the bigger picture of this leader?s accomplishments. The author?s own life at the intersection of business and politics gives him profound insight into the real workings of representative governments. This book can be compared to Churchill?s biography of his ancestor, Marlborough, for its incisive commentary on their protagonists? skills in navigating domestic and international political waters. For this reason alone, FDR: Champion of Freedom deserves to be read. The book is paced extremely well, with enough digressions and personal observations to give the reader breathing space between the enormous, Byzantine wranglings which generated FDR?s major accomplishments. Also mentioned is Lillian Cross, a Miami housewife who, at a rally in 1932, bumped the arm of an assassin trying to kill President-Elect Roosevelt , almost certainly saving his life. From such tenuous threads are the destinies of men and nations woven. The subtitle

The Definitive Biography of FDR

Literally hundreds of books have been written about Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Yet he remains, to much of the general public and to historians, a Sphinx. What different light could possibly be shed on this man, the most revered--and hated--American of the 20th Century? Conrad Black, a highly successful Canadian businessman, offers many unique insights. In doing so, he brushes away the legends, distortions, and outright lies that have accumulated over the decades, and shows us an FDR scrubbed clean of both hagiography and historical revisionist muckraking. The author has rightly chosen to concentrate on FDR's 12 years as President, so Black's description of FDR's life before the presidency takes up less than 30% of the book.It is Black's contention that FDR was not merely the 20th Century's greatest American President, but the most important person of the 20th Century--period. He bases this on seven key accomplishments:1) FDR was, alongside Churchill, the co-savior of Western Civilization during its darkest hour.2) FDR ended American isolation and permanently engaged America in Europe and the Far East. Roosevelt, an anti-colonialist since his school days, predicted the crack-up of the British Empire. Decades before the fact, he foresaw China's emergence as a major power, and the Middle East as a potential source of trouble. 3) Roosevelt reinvented the Federal Government's relationship to the people, reviving the economy and rescuing capitalism without resorting to the Fascistic and Socialistic extremes of other countries. Despite the contentions in the recently published "FDR's Folly," Roosevelt did indeed revive the domestic economy, reducing unemployment from over 30% in 1933 to about 7% by 1939. On top of the economic improvements, FDR's "workfare" programs resulted in the creation of an infrastructure in use to this day: The Golden Gate and Bay Bridges, Hoover Dam, the Tennessee Valley Authority--which brought electricity to millions of rural citizens, and countless smaller projects.4) FDR was an almost uniformly successful war leader, moreso than Washington, Madison, Lincoln, or Wilson. He chose the right people to carry out his war aims--Marshall, Nimitz, MacArthur, and Eisenhower--and the few times he overrode their objections (insisting on giving the defeat of Germany top priority and authorizing Doolittle's raid on Tokyo) the results were favorable for the Allies. Despite the disaster at Pearl Harbor (for which Black rightly lays blame at the local commanders' feet) the Americans prosecuted World War II with remarkably few defeats. Under FDR, America produced unimaginable amounts of war material which sped victory on all fronts, all while America endured the least number of war casualties among Allied nations.5) Shattering the Yalta Myth, Black contends and convinces that Roosevelt created the circumstances which allowed his predecessors--from Truman through Clinton--to complete the Wilsonian objective and make the world tru

Wonderful Overview Of FDR's Fascinating Life!

This book is an example of how much difference a writer's gift can make in the success of his efforts at biography. While there is little that is new or novel in this superb one-volume interpretation of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's storied life, the integration of the established facts and the use of mainly secondary sources is done with such art and ability that it becomes a stunning read, one the average reader will find immensely approachable and eminently readable. What is more amazing is that this effort is done so well by a non-professional in the sense that author Conrad Black is neither an academic historian nor a professional author. Yet no one who reads this can doubt his way with words, a gift so considerable that he turns this mainly derivative biographical effort into what is sure to become one of the most widely read biographies of FDR yet. The book is both entertaining and engaging, told in such an eloquent way that his often-humorous anecdotes and descriptions of various events involving both FDR and his significant orbit of friends and family is a source of constantly evolving interest to the reader. The author shows his admiration for FDR based on what he refers to colorfully as an abiding show of personal courage in the face of adversity and pain, as well as by his enormous social and political skills in nudging individuals and groups in the direction of what he felt to be in the greater good. Examples given include his meticulous and adroit handling of the country's movement away from an abiding isolationism and in the positive direction of active support of Britian as well as of China. His single-minded determination to slide the country away from the dangers of neutrality in the face of the global threat of fascism was perhaps one of the most skillful uses of political persuasion and cultural 'spin' of the 20th century. The author seems to view FDR as the primary force working toward a radical reconstruction of the post WWII world, and a man who in conjunction with Winston Churchill, so accurately foresaw the dangers of such a world that his prescription for working through it remained valid for several decades after his death. In fact, his idea that the key to the future peace of the postwar world lay in the focusing on the democratization of that world did more than anything to help legitimize democratic forms of government to the very audience he strove to convince, the members of the United Nations forum he helped so much to breathe air into even as he was himself dying. The author, interestingly, is a staunch advocate of the merits of the so-called "New Deal" that FDR's administrations help to invoke in the midst of the worldwide crisis of the Great Depression, which Black correctly views as having saved capitalism and the free market system it connotes at a time when both capitalism itself as well as the free market system was being widely suspected as being the cause of the troubles themselves. In addition, the cre